Lebensborn: SS Program to Breed Aryan Race

Lebensborn e.V. (literally: “Fount of Life“) was an SS-initiated, state-supported, registered association in Nazi Germany with the goal of raising the birth rate of Aryan children of people classified as “racially pure“ and “healthy“ based on Nazi racial hygiene and health ideology. Lebensborn was established by Heinrich Himmler, and provided welfare to its mostly unmarried mothers, encouraged anonymous births by unmarried women at their maternity homes, and mediated adoption of these children by likewise “racially pure“ and “healthy“ parents, particularly SS members and their families. The Cross of Honour of the German Mother was given to the women who bore the most Aryan children. Abortion was legalised (and, more commonly, endorsed) by the Nazis for disabled and non-Germanic children, but strictly punished otherwise. Initially set up in Germany in 1935, Lebensborn expanded into several occupied European countries with Germanic populations during the Second World War. It included the selection of “racially worthy“ orphans for adoption and care for children born from Aryan women who had been in relationships with SS members. It originally excluded children born from unions between common soldiers and foreign women, because there was no proof of ’racial purity’ on both sides. During the war, many children were kidnapped from their parents and judged by Aryan criteria for their suitability to be raised in Lebensborn homes, and fostering by German families. At the Nuremberg Trials, much direct evidence was found of the kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany, across Greater Germany during the period 1939–1945. #nazi #WWII #worldWar2 #war #eugenics #Lebensborn #concentrationCamp #Genetics #naziExperiments #AryanChildrenForTheFhrer #ChildrenOfLebensborn #lebensbornDocumentary #lebensbornProgramWw2 #lebensbornBabiesToday #lebensbornNorwayDocumentary #lebensbornStory #NikolaysGeneticsLessons #WoldWarTwo #WWI #EuropeanWar #WW2 #SecondWorldWar #documentary #Historian #history #baby #WorldWar #thirdReich #Himmler #dagger #christening #Aryan #Race #breeding #SS